April 28, 2025, 9:41 p.m.
(Photo: Intent/Oleksiy Kravchuk)
On Monday, April 28, the Hrushevsky Scientific Library in Odesa hosted an event dedicated to the prominent Ukrainian public figure, writer, doctor, and author of the geopolitical concept of Ukraine, Yuriy Lypa. The event was held on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of his birth.
As Iryna Nechytaliuk, PhD in Philology, associate professor at the I.I. Mechnikov National University of Kyiv, lecturer and popularizer of Ukrainian literature, told Intent, the figure of Yuriy Lypa is still not well known to the general public, although his work has long been recognized in the academic environment.
"Lypa is still absent from school and university curricula, although his place in the Ukrainian literary canon is obvious," she said.
The canon, as the researcher explains, is primarily what is taught in schools and universities. Lypa definitely deserves to be among the key names. His works, primarily devoted to the themes of war, national struggle, and Ukrainian identity, are of particular value today, when society is actively rethinking what war literature should be like and who has the right to write it-direct participants in the fighting or writers who reflect on the events.
Comparing Lypa to other authors, the associate professor notes that unlike many writers of the Soviet era who survived repression and were forced to write with an eye to imperial ideology, Yurii Lypa created works of a distinctly national character. He was not forced to "encrypt" or avoid a clear position in his texts. His works are openly patriotic and devoted to the Ukrainian cause.
Unlike many writers whose works remain incomprehensible in terms of clear national identification (for example, in the prose of the revolutionary struggle, it is difficult to determine whether the author is on the side of the "whites," "reds," or Ukrainians), Yuriy Lypa clearly defines himself as a Ukrainian patriot.
Thus, in the contemporary literary pantheon, Lypa stands next to those artists who not only artistically reproduced the events of the struggle for Ukraine but were active participants in it themselves.
If we talk about literary periodization, Yurii Lypa and his father Ivan Lypa occupy a special place. Their works are located on the turn of the century: Ivan Lypa is mainly from the late nineteenth century, while Yurii Lypa is from the early twentieth century. They naturally fit into the general context of the literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Regarding Yurii Lypa's belonging to the "literature of the twenties" of the twentieth century, it is worth noting that the usual category of "literature of the twenties" in the Ukrainian context most often covers writers who remained on Soviet territory, survived repression, or adapted to Soviet rule to some extent. Lypa is a different story: his work goes beyond this standard notion. He belongs to those who did not accept Soviet rule and eventually suffered as well.
According to Nechytalyuk, Yuriy Lypa could quite organically be included in an anthology of Ukrainian literature alongside such authors as Yuriy Yanovsky.
"If we talk about Odesa and the so-called 'Odesa myth,' we usually rely only on the image of Odesa created by Yanovsky in The Master of the Ship. But if we turn to other works, for example, The Notebook, we can see another image of the city - not just revolutionary Odesa, but Odesa that is consciously Ukrainian," she explained.
Photo: Intent correspondent Oleksiy Kravchuk.
Ірина Глухова